Motor vehicles / Simplifying technical requirements and testing

EESC opinion on the Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulations (EC) No 561/2006, (EU) 2018/858, (EU) 2019/2144 and (EU) 2024/1257 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the simplification of technical requirements and testing procedures for motor vehicles and repealing Council Directive 70/157/EEC and Regulation No 540/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council - COM(2025) 993 final – 2025/422 (COD)

Key points

The EESC:

• stresses the strategic importance of the European automotive sector for industrial value chains, employment, and innovation, and calls for strengthening production capacities and technological leadership in line with the Union’s ''Made in Europe'' objectives;
• emphasises that regulatory simplification must fully respect the EU’s climate goals and decarbonisation pathway, while ensuring that differences in propulsion technology do not justify weaker safety, health, or enforcement standards;
• welcomes the creation of the M1e subcategory for small electric vehicles as an industrial policy measure and calls for a coherent approach for comparable categories, including light commercial vehicles (N1);
• highlights the central role of the digital tachograph in road safety, driver well-being, and enforcement of social rules, and stresses that exemptions must be proportionate, limited, and not compromise monitoring of vehicles engaged in third-party commercial transport;
• calls for regulatory coherence across the automotive package, including interoperability between vehicles, charging infrastructure, and the electricity grid, and alignment with type-approval rules, RED III, and the Battery Regulation to enable smart and bidirectional charging (V2G).

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